Tempting Missions
by Lady Kagome-san
Summary: Ch. 8 is now Up. Kakashi and Sakura are in rival organizations, and have both been given missions to take a hostage. What will happen when they discover each other, and the facts about the treacherous world they work in? AU, KakaSaku
1. Chapter 1

**Standard Disclaimer:** If you recognize something, I don't own it.

**chapter one//discovery**

Sakura Haruno was ANBU's number one female agent. She had entered the organization at the ever-so-early age of twelve, and quickly climbed the ranks. She finally reached the top at age twenty-one. Granted, there were few women in ANBU, but Sakura was the only one among them who could be trusted with the most difficult missions and who could complete said missions faster than the equivalent top male. Few civilians ever saw her, as she was infamous for executing missions swiftly and silently. People said that if one did see her, her face would be the image one carried to the grave.

At the moment, Sakura was training at the ANBU headquarters, located in the middle of the Konoha Forest. The complex of buildings was underground. The majority of the buildings were completely submerged, while a few lookout posts peeked out from the terrain. Those ANBU members on guard were not on the lookout for wary civilians, but for members of their rival organization: Sharingan.

Sharingan was another private organization who carried out missions on a daily basis. Even Sakura did not know how many agents Sharingan had in all, but ANBU spies had estimated the number at roughly fifty active agents. ANBU itself had exactly sixty-two.

To keep its numbers up, ANBU recruited orphans and trained them in the arts of spying, martial arts, and stealth. All groups, from the lowest orphans to the highest leader, were given special titles used to distinguish each group from one another. The orphans were labeled "genin", while the esteemed leader was called the Hokage. Sakura, as a high agent, was called a jounin. Each tier of agents completely submitted to their superiors.

The only person whom Sakura had to obey was the Hokage, Tsunade.

"Haruno-san, Tsunade-sama would like to see you in her office," a chuunin agent said as he approached the jounin.

Sakura stopped hitting the punching bag, grabbed a towel, and wiped off her forehead. The chuunin stood patiently. Sakura dismissed him with a quick wave of her hand as she took a couple sips from her water bottle. '_Should I change first?_' she wondered idly before stepping into the locker room. She deposited her things in her locker and chanced a quick shower before jogging to the Hokage's office.

"Tsunade-sama, you requested to see me?" she asked, standing at the door.

"Yes, yes, come in Sakura."

She walked into the spacious office.

"Sit down."

She sat down, and waited for the Hokage to finish reviewing the mission reports that she had received earlier that day. Tsunade put the reports in a tray on her desk labeled "to be filed" and faced Sakura.

"You've got a mission."

Sakura was not surprised; she rarely was called into the Hokage's office for anything else. On a few rare occasions, she had been called in to take a team of genin under her wing until another suitable jounin could be found to train them.

She sat still in her chair. Tsunade looked at another tall stack of papers. Sakura knew better than to fidget; she did not want to seem uncomfortable and anxious. Her recent training in the gym, however, had energized her and she did not want to sit down for too long. The adrenaline was pumping, and she felt caged at the moment. In an idle moment, her leg started bouncing imperceptibly, but she quickly squelched the movement before Tsunade mentioned it.

After a few minutes, Tsunade finally put the stack of papers aside and turned to face Sakura yet again.

"Your mission is to go into the city and keep watch."

"Watch duty? Tsunade-sama, that type of mission is for the chuunin…" she couldn't help exclaiming. In an instant, she clamped her lips shut and clenched her jaw. Her face started to turn a lovely shade of red.

"I've just received reports that there has been Sharingan activity in the downtown district of Ichiriku. I need you to go there and keep an eye out for me. You are to report any suspicious activity, and, if applicable, to capture any Sharingan agents you may come across. One hostage will do, but we want information out of them. If you end up capturing some numbskull genin, kill him. They're no good anyway."

Sakura sat, contemplating the mission. She leaned back in her chair, and furrowed her brow as she thought about the mission's objectives.

Slowly, she leaned forward again, thinking about how to phrase her questions.

"Hokage-sama, how long will this mission be?"

"As long as it takes to obtain substantial amounts of information. I estimate that you will be in the city for at least two months. However, you are to come back once you manage to get a hostage."

"So a hostage is the primary objective?"

"No, information is. Hostages just provide a…searchable book of knowledge."

"I see…may I look at the Bingo Book? I'd rather have a more definite idea of who I am to capture."

Tsunade smirked and leaned back in her chair, lacing her fingers together behind her head and subsequently pushing out her rather large chest.

"I thought you'd say that. There's no need to look in the Book…your target is Kakashi Hatake."

------oooOOOooo--------

Kakashi Hatake was the number-one laziest agent in the entire Sharingan organization. He excelled in arriving late to meetings, reading sketchy novels while walking, and killing. When it came to missions, Kakashi was not one to kid around, however. He was able to quickly locate, track, and dispose of targets when he was assigned to a mission.

Despite being lazy, Kakashi was still one of the top agents in Sharingan. He answered only to the leader, Itachi Uchiha.

Around four in the afternoon, Kakashi could normally be found lounging in the gym, reading _Icha Icha Paradise_. That is exactly where Neji Hyuuga found him as he came to deliver a message.

"You're wanted, Kakashi."

There was no need to ask exactly _where_ he was wanted; Itachi was the only who could and would call him to come into his office, no matter what time of day.

Kakashi lazily stood up, his masked face hiding whatever emotions he might have held. Neji guessed that he was probably half-sleepy and half-annoyed, judging by the disgruntled air he gave off. Neji's pupil-less eyes followed Kakashi as he walked out of the gym and into the leader's office.

Sharingan headquarters were located right in the middle of Sand Forest. The name didn't give much away, since the surrounding area wasn't sandy at all. Likely, some founding father of the name Sand had discovered the forest (not that a forest was so hard to hide) and egotistically named it after himself.

Headquarters were in a series of buildings designed to look like a dilapidated daimyo estate. In truth, they really were dilapidated daimyo estates that Itachi's family had owned. When the rest of the family was killed in a blood-bath which also destroyed the compound, Itachi took over the homes and started recruiting agents to complete missions that would further his ambitions for power.

Itachi's office was located in the largest of the buildings. The building had once been beautiful, with golden tiles and a low silhouette. The building was now even lower and the golden tiles were shattered and spread out on the ground near the foundation.

Jogging lightly, Kakashi reached the office and stepped inside. He leaned in a doorframe as he waited to be called in. His uncovered eye scanned the room to find Itachi shuffling a few manila folders. The folders likely contained mission reports, turned in by other agents earlier that day.

"Come in," Itachi said finally, putting the manila folders into a file cabinet located in his desk. He closed the drawer, then, after thinking, reopened the drawer to pull out a few more folders. He placed these folders on Kakashi's side of the desk.

"Sit."

Kakashi sat, and picked up one of the folders that Itachi had placed in front of him. Opening it, he saw a page likely photocopied from the Bingo Book. It gave a name, age, and other facts about an agent he didn't know.

"That's the page from the Bingo Book about one of Tsunade's agents. Her name is Ino, and you are to capture her. We have received reports that Tsunade has been dispatching agents left and right in order to find out more about us."

Haughtily, he continued. "Unluckily for her, we already know about the impending waves of agents. However, we do not have pictures for any top-ranked agents in her pitiful organization. Your mission is to discover more about this 'Ino' and then capture her. All we know is what you see on the sheet in front of you."

Kakashi put the sheet down and picked up a different manila folder.

"That is where you will be staying during this mission."

"How long will this mission be? All I have to do is find a capture an enemy agent."

"You only have to capture an agent? We want information, Kakashi, and in order to do that you'll need to slowly gain Ino's trust and obtain some information before you completely take her hostage."

"What about our capturing squad?"

"What good would that do? Enemy agents are trained not to leak information under such pressure. All agents are issued suicide pills, which they can quickly swallow and die, cutting off a source of information. You'll need to…coax information out. As you gain her trust, ask her questions. I'm sure I don't need to tell you how to do that. Because I can send Genma instead if this mission is too complicated for you…"

"No, I'll do it."

"Good. Now go, and don't come back without my hostage."

Kakashi stood, and walked swiftly out of the office and into his small apartment. He shared the apartment with another agent, Genma, but he was currently somewhere else.

'_Probably finding some random whore to take home tonight_' he thought, shuddering as he remembered some of Genma's conquests. These women, although civilians, had somehow traced Genma and had thrown themselves at him. They had proved to be a real nuisance. They had been taken care of.

Kakashi flopped onto his bed, placing one arm behind his head. He wasn't the least skilled in womanizing, but he hated doing it to gain information. He was a love-em-and-leave-em, one-night stand type. The women he took knew that, so he was never bothered like Genma was. He wondered what Ino looked like, how he would introduce himself, how he would get her to trust him before he took her back to headquarters for more questioning. He felt dirty, breaking some random woman's trust like that.

All for the sake of a mission.

He packed some things into a bag, '_best to look like a true civilian'_, and stepped out the door. Nobody said good-bye to him; missions were part of everyday life in the Sharingan. If an agent left and was killed in action, he simply did not complete missions anymore. That was life.

------oooOOOooo---------

Sakura, after receiving her mission, walked out of Tsunade's office and went back to the gym. She did her best thinking while hurting something. She chose to go back to the abandoned punching bag, and started attacking it.

All she knew about Kakashi Hatake was that he was in the Sharingan, age estimated to be thirty (which was considered rather old), and that he was in the top-tier of agents there. Nobody knew if he had any defining features---those that saw him quickly died. She would have to do some research on him. One thing she knew for sure was that he only had one eye. In some freak accident, he had lost the other.

'_God, I hope he's not disfigured or something…_' Sakura hated taking hostages. It was a tricky business, controlling one's strength so as not to actually kill. She figured that a few quick touches to pressure points would knock this guy out, even if he was some great agent.

Sakura finished her second workout of the day, showered again, and returned to the small apartment that she shared with her best friend Ino Yamanaka. Agents weren't supposed to get close to one another, but she and Ino had started out in the same team of genin. Ino had protected her from bullying chuunin, and they had become attached after that.

Sakura had been found by ANBU watch agents when she was wandering around the Konoha Forest. Her parents had died in a car accident, leaving her waiting at school for them. When they didn't show up by eight-o-clock, she simply walked away. Some part of her always hoped that they would somehow find out about her accomplishments, walk back into her life and give her a pat on the back, but she knew that it was just wishful thinking.

She packed some clothes into a bag, and walked out of the apartment just as Ino walked in. In an unspoken good-bye, Ino and Sakura hugged. With a quick nod, Sakura walked out the door and out of the ANBU complex altogether.

She had a mission to fulfill.

**A/N:** Thank you so much for reading…This is my first Naruto fanfic, so please review with comments on how I can improve. (Of course, rave reviews are nice too). I know that so far, some of you may be wondering why Kakashi's mission isn't to take Sakura hostage. Well, you'll see later why they have different missions, but remember that they don't know what the other looks like yet.

Also, in this edit I added page separators (as per a reader's comment)…I hope that these work, because I did have some originally, but they didn't show up online…

--Lade Kagome-san


	2. Chapter 2

**Standard Disclaimer:** If you recognize something, I don't own it.

**chapter two//traversing the terrain**

From Konoha Forest, the main city lay approximately two days of hard journeying away. (Of course, it would take civilians longer to get from Point A to Point B, and the average jounin took significantly less time. The two-day average, however, was used regularly).

Sakura couldn't remember the last time that she'd be sent out to the city. Most of her missions were covert operations dealing with tracking and assassination. Few targets worth killing lived amongst the standard hustle and bustle of the city: Akatsuki.

Then again, Sakura couldn't remember the last time she'd been to the city at all. She was always working, or training, or in transit between the two. She didn't have much time to relax as her friend Ino did. Sakura had (important) work to do.

As she darted through the forest, she checked and rechecked her standard kunoichi kit of supplies: soap (used for washing body, hair and clothes while doubling as a heavy weight to knock out perverts when bathing in rivers and streams), shuriken, kunai of varying sizes, and an extra uniform. She had also packed several outfits worth of comfortable, easy-movement clothes.

Ino, however, had surreptitiously added the following: yukata ("for when you watch the fireworks and bon dances," she had said while throwing garments—in all the most fashionable colors--at Sakura), kimono ("for formal dinners and such"), trendy clothes ("come on, show off your body a little, honey") and various hair ornaments (matched all types of clothing, extra sharp for bodily protection and to keep those stubborn strands in place). Even with their silent goodbye, Ino had pushed more items into Sakura's arms.

Sakura sighed. Though she still had all the skill of a top ANBU agent, she was vastly slowed by such cumbersome garments. She had half a mind to throw them in the next available stream, but she also remembered that Ino had made her swear to send pictures of her wearing them. Apparently, Sakura's latest mission was viewed as a vacation.

After reassuring herself that all of her gear and Ino's crap (excuse me—clothes) were still in place, Sakura rechecked her itinerary and mission plan. Tsunade had prepared for her to stay in some apartment somewhere. It had some absurd name, as if buildings needed titles—it could have been called Pooville for all she cared. As long as there weren't signs which announced "ANBU AGENT LIVING HERE", she was fine.

She was due to arrive at the building at 12:32 PM the next day. At 12:40 she would get settled in her room, then at 9:30 she would get dressed to go out. In her mission plan she had a list of places Kakashi Hatake might be found, mainly clubs in which one-night-stands could be quickly attained for a night's pleasure. She shuddered to think that she—a fine agent—would be so lowered to scouring for men in such places. Well, a man, anyway.

She wouldn't be taking an alias for this one. She'd never needed one for hostage work—her hostages always ended up dead after interrogation. If asked, her name was Sakura. Just Sakura. Her plans were simple. She would become a city-dweller (in name if not in attitude), find Hatake, charm him (seduction techniques? I'll-show-you-mine-if-you-show-me-yours technique? She was unsure of these details), knock him out and take him back to interrogation headquarters.

Her mental checklist complete, Sakura kept going. It wouldn't be much longer, now, before she would set up camp temporarily. She could do this.

Then she heard a distint _thunk_.

-----------oooOOOooo--------------

Kakashi Hatake was in the middle of _Icha Icha Tactics_ when he tripped over a root. This wasn't exactly typical of him, but he was pretty much preoccupied. Only .2 of his conscience was left to navigating terrain. The other 99.8 was either contemplating his mission objectives or thoroughly enjoying the breathtaking imagery only to be found in _Icha Icha_ novels.

Ino Yamanaka was, according to her picture-less Bingo Book page, approximately twenty-one years of age, blonde, and 5 feet 2 inches. There were very few women in the ranks of both ANBU and Sharingan. Thus, even though there was little information with which to definitively identify an agent, chances were high that the female agent you caught was the one you were looking for.

Unfortunately, this same lack of information meant that there was little to go by in terms of mission techniques. Kakashi wasn't about to go throwing kunai (even well-aimed ones) at women in order to find out whether or not they had agent-like reflexes. (Though that idea could work.) He would just have to hit the clubs. Agents on hostage lookout always went to the clubs because there were so many people. He was pushing thirty—a bit old for the clubs, now, but his silver hair could be portrayed as a normal hair color in the right lighting.

He didn't need an alias for this mission, or so he had rationalized. He wasn't really used to hostage work. If he gave a false name, he'd probably end up screwing something up along the way. The one time he'd told a woman that his name was Genma (it should have been so easy to remember), he'd become Neji by the time the night was through. He'd had to drug her up and take her to headquarters earlier than expected.

Still mulling over the right ways to act in clubs, Kakashi tripped over yet another root. He heard someone laughing to one side, so he pulled his nose out of _Icha Icha_—in the middle of the best scene, too—to see who was next to him.

He saw a woman, about twenty or so, holding a rather large duffel bag. She looked like a civilian, though she was wearing athletic clothes. She wasn't following any particularly marked path through the forest, so she could have been just your run-of-the-mill yoga instructor. In the forest. Alone.

Kakashi shrugged this off. After all, calming spirits could be found anywhere. He wasn't one to interrogate someone else's choice of locale.

Rationalization aside, Kakashi looked at the woman's face. She was rather pretty, in an earnest way. She had pink hair—not something you saw everyday—and green eyes. Her face was scrunched up at the moment, analyzing his face in return.

"Hi." Sakura slapped herself mentally for this one. '_Good going…you laugh at him, stare at him, and THEN say 'hi'? You're truly stupid, girl…'_

"Oh…hey. Um…what are you doing in this forest?" Kakashi nervously scratched the back of his head, crinkling his remaining eye up in the bad attempt at a smile.

Sakura tilted her head a bit, trying to figure out why she had such a sense of unease with this man. He was taller than her by a long-shot, and looked to be several years her elder. He wore a mask—strange, but then again she had pink hair—and had a patch over one eye. She hadn't really expected to see anyone in the forest, let alone a guy, so she hadn't even noticed his presence until he'd tripped. '_Stupid…that could get you killed! But…he is kind of cute…'_

Shaking her head to clear out the voice she'd dubbed Inner Sakura, Sakura finally replied.

"Oh…just…um…" she searched for a plausible excuse. "I'm just coming back from visiting my grandmother."

"In the forest?"

"Er…yeah…you see, umm…she died recently, so I was revisiting her grave."

"With a bag?"

"It's a long trip in and out of the forest." Sakura congratulated herself for getting out of a potentially sticky situation. She took a brave step, though, and decided to turn the questioning tables.

"So, where are you headed?"

Kakashi looked down at his feet, thinking about a good reply. She'd already taken the 'visiting the grandma' excuse, so now all he could think of was, "Akatsuki. I was…meditating in the forest for a while."

"Oh…Akatsuki?" Sakura pondered here. She could do one of a few things: a. immediately run in another direction; b. say that she'd forgotten something at the grave; or c. play the innocent-girl role and ask for directions.

"I'm a bit lost…could you take me with you?" She chose "c."

Kakashi was a bit startled. She was visting her grandma's grave, and now she couldn't find her way back out? He was a sucker for a pretty face, though. And she was a different kind of pretty—not that generic blonde that he thought Ino might be. To top it off, she was giving him the puppy-dog look.

"Of course. Shall we, my lady?" Bowing ostentatiously, he was giddy when he heard her giggle again.

Throughout the rest of the day, Kakashi was continually trying to make Sakura laugh again. He told stupid jokes, and even tried pulling faces (which was hard when one wear's an opaque mask). When they finally stopped to set up camp, he stopped trying so hard. Instead, he decided to try his seduction techniques. While Genma had gotten random whores from time to time, he had been without sex for over a year. He felt bad, setting up a girl like this, but he had needs. Hands only worked for so long.

"So," he said, leaning towards Sakura while they were sitting around the small fire she had made, "what's your name?"

His seduction techniques worked better when there was alcohol involved. One-night-stands generally started with alcohol and ended with a headache.

"Sakura. Just Sakura."

"That's pretty…" Kakashi drifted off, letting his gloved hand find its way to her hair. He stroked it a bit, but then she stiffened and stood, shouting,

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

He was shocked. His techniques had never turned out so badly before. What was he doing wrong?

"You're treating me like some idiotic bimbo at a bar! God, if we had had alcohol would you be trying even harder to get in my pants right about now? Fuck you, I'm leaving."

"But it's still dark…"

"Really? I'd rather take my chances out there than be here with you, you chauvinistic sex-crazed pervert." She stomped off into the dark, until Kakashi couldn't see her anymore by the light of the fire.

'_You're going to have to work on that before you meet Ino…a mission could be at stake.'_

Some distance into the forest, Sakura fumed. God, she hoped that her target wasn't that sick-minded.

Before she set up camp in a tree, though, she came to an abrupt realization.

That man had had only one eye.

---------------- -- - ------------------

**A/N:**** So our two characters have met…and gotten off to a rough start. What will happen when they meet up later at the mumblemumble.**

**Please, please, review if you've come this far. I take all criticism (maybe not well, but I do), so please write a few words about this fic…**


	3. Chapter 3

**Standard Disclaimer:** If you recognize something, I don't own it.

**chapter three//reconnaissance**

_Some distance into the forest, Sakura fumed. God, she hoped that her target wasn't that sick-minded._

_Before she set up camp in a tree, though, she came to an abrupt realization._

_That man had had only one eye._

----------------------- - - - --------------------------

'_You spent all that time, and you didn't notice who he was?' _Inner Sakura made an appearance, berating Sakura for such a distinct lack of focus. '_You could have been killed!'_ Shaking her head, Sakura leaned her head back onto the large tree branch. She perched, listening intently to both her alter ego and her surroundings.

So maybe she had found her target already. He may not have been the most gentlemanly person, but he was definitely easy to spot in a crowd. Tall, fair, and…handsome? Before he had tried seducing her by the campfire, she had started thinking that he had a nonchalant sort of appeal. The way his hair had taken on a sort of sparkle from the fire, and the way his eye had held all sorts of emotion which she couldn't untangle.

The effect, of course, was quickly ruined after what he'd pulled.

'_And you lost your temper.'_ True. As an ANBU agent, and a jounin at that, Sakura had been trained to keep her composure under pressure. She had once been attacked three-on-one, without weapons on hand. She had calmly high-kicked, low-sweeped and windmill-kicked her way out of that mess. She didn't even stop to wipe the sweat off of her forehead.

But here was this…this…Kakashi figure. Didn't even tell her his name before he put the moves on her. She could take on three full-grown men in an unfair fight, but she lost it completely when one idiot had…she couldn't even fathom her reaction. Maybe it was hormones. Yes, that was it. Her period must be coming up.

Except that, with all the physical activity agents went through, female agents rarely went through the menstruation cycle.

So what was it? Why so different, one time out of many?

--------------------- -------------------

The next morning, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and ready to kick the crap out of Kakashi, Sakura leapt from her tree and started traveling again. She walked quicker than normal, so as to minimize the time spent on such an annoying mission. Even with her heavy bag, Sakura reached Akatsuki before eleven in the morning. Deciding that her itinerary was more important than her emotions, she took a walk through the city before moving into her new apartment.

Analyzing the layout of the streets and alleys, Sakura mapped out all of the possible hotspots where her target could be found at various points during the day. Some thirty-odd clubs, bars, and…exotic dancer locales became imprinted in her mind. She even timed the travel time between all of the spots she had found.

That being said and done, Sakura made her way to her new home. '_Yokohama-san's Grand Deluxe.'_ She examined the gaudy sign, and then made her way inside. The place was clean, but definitely not as deluxe as it proclaimed itself to be. There was a gym for residents, and a small steam room, but no doormen waited to be of service.

At the desk, she rung the bell. A rather large woman came out from the office, and leaned heavily on chubby arms.

"Can I help you?"

"Hi, I'm Sakura…I'm renting an apartment here?"

The woman grunted, thumbing through several manila folders while her head rested on her hand. She pulled one out, opened it, and shoved several forms and papers at Sakura.

"Sign here, it's your rental agreement. And here's your liability form…here's a list of guidelines to living here: no pets, no smoking, no loud parties after 9 PM…"

Sakura did all that she was told, hoping to finally get out of this woman's bored clutches. Finally, the woman handed her a key.

"Room 214. Your roommate already checked in."

Sakura turned. Tsunade had never said anything about a roommate during her mission. Sakura would have a word with her when she could get her electronics together. Great, now she couldn't even do everything she needed to without some civilian asking questions. With her luck, she'd probably get someone who'd bring guys back to the room.

She could picture it now: she would walk into her new apartment, bags in hand, only to find some bimbo in skimpy clothes making out with some guy. When they'd hear the door open, the couple would break apart. Sakura would be on the receiving end of double death glares, as if she could help her timing.

Sakura was still thinking about this possibility when she stepped on and off the elevator. She found herself at the front door of room 214. The paint was yellowing, but it wasn't peeling off of the door just yet.

Sighing, she pulled the key out of her pocket, unlocked the door, and walked in to find a half-naked silver-haired man checking his senbon holster.

-------------- - - - -----------------

Kakashi, once snubbed by Sakura, had hurried straight towards the city. He needed to work on his skills if he couldn't pick up a girl who wasn't completely soused. He also needed, as part of the same general mindset, to work on his mission plans. Kakashi wasn't normally one to put so much time into planning something—Neji normally did stuff like that, not him—but something about this mission bothered him. Something just hadn't seemed completely right about that girl he'd met in the forest, either. He hadn't even noticed her until she'd laughed at him for tripping on a stupid root. Pushing these worries aside, Kakashi set to finding his lodgings for the mission. He'd fix this mess later.

His building—Yokohama-san's Grand Deluxe—was a rather nondescript building towards the center of the city. Once he'd located it, he had immediately gone in to get his room. Normally late to everything, Kakashi surprised himself by showing up early to the apartment building office.

He walked in through the doors, only to find a heavy woman leaning on the counter waiting for him. He was a bit surprised—these places were never known for their fantastic service.

"You were supposed to be here yesterday." On the other hand, maybe he wasn't early to this thing after all.

"Yesterday? I was told by my…friend that this apartment would only be ready today."

"Your 'friend' was wrong. Because you weren't here on time, you've been placed with a roommate. Another renter was on time to _his_ appointment with me, so he got your room. Lucky for you, your roommate didn't show up on time either. So it's tough luck for both of you."

This was great. Just peachy. Now he couldn't research this Ino person without having someone else breathing down his neck. He grabbed the key from the woman's hand, and found his new apartment. He listened at the door, but didn't hear anyone inside so he walked in and put his stuff down. It was now sometime in the early afternoon, and Kakashi had to start locating his target quickly. Putting the moves on a woman, he had recently learned, took much longer than he'd expected. After all, he'd never had to deal with long-term relationships before. This was new to him.

Kakashi took advantage of a warm shower before drying his hair and walking out into the main room. There was only one bedroom, with one bed—this would go well. He pushed this aside. He had places to go tonight. He strapped on his kunai holster to his upper arm, where it could be covered by civilian clothes yet still accessible. Then he took his senbon holster, unsure where to place it. In his thought, he didn't hear the key in the door. Just as he decided that he would put the senbon holster, Sakura walked in.

He turned. Her? Well, at least his roommate was pretty if not warm and friendly.

"Ah, Sakura was it?"

She ignored him, went into the bedroom, and started unpacking. He walked in behind her, and decided to poke a little fun.

"What, no hello for an old friend?"

That had gone a bit too far for Sakura's taste. She straightened, turned around, and looked him in the eye.

"An old friend? Is that what you are? Funny, I didn't know that perverts were starting to create new monikers for themselves. I didn't think that an 'old friend' would be so single-minded."

"Ah, so that's what this is. Well, unluckily for you, you've just walked into the only bedroom in this whole apartment. And you've got me as a roommate. We will make this work, and you will start by being nice."

"Nice? Fine. You'll start by sleeping on the couch and keeping your hands to yourself."

Kakashi backed away, and pulled some clothes out of his bag. He started getting dressed, and Sakura (behind a closed door) started doing the same. They both needed to get to the clubs—Sakura to drink off this unpleasant surprise, Kakashi to find Ino.

Sakura headed out the door of the apartment. She didn't care which clubs she frequented at this point. Now that Kakashi was her roommate, she only had to drug his food and drink before lugging him back home. The only real work left to do was to find out why he, in turn, was in Akatsuki in the first place.

Obviously, from the rooming accommodations, he wasn't planning on moving permanently or he'd have found a better place. Agents made money, Kakashi just wasn't spending it. So then, he was on a mission. But why? He was a killing agent. Could he be here to kill someone in the city? If so, there weren't many targets left because Sakura had killed them herself. So maybe he was on a similar mission as hers? After all, if Sharingan knew Tsunade was sending out agents, they would only do the same in kind.

Maybe she'd have to be nice after all. She no longer had to seduce men at clubs to get what she needed, but she did have to work out some information about him.

Whatever her new plans, she wouldn't start tonight. Now she just needed a welcome drink.

Sakura made her way to the bar furthest from her apartment. Maybe, she figured, Kakashi would slowly work his way out from the building. He wouldn't even reach this bar until a few weeks went by.

Once at the bar, Sakura ordered a Bloody Mary and sipped it solemnly. She felt a good buzz coming on with just one drink, and she was about to switch to soda when she heard a voice in her ear.

"Well, well. Look who I've found again? Miss me, Sakura?"

"Go away. Please, just for tonight, leave me alone."

"Fine. But I'll stay long enough to let you know that if you drink any more of that cocktail, you'll find men much more forward than I was. And you'll be unable to do anything to stop them."

Sakura reluctantly put down her drink, swiveled in the bar stool, and looked Kakashi in the eye.

"Whatever your name is…fine, see? It's down. Now I'm going home." She stood to go, and felt him looking at her. "Don't follow me…just stay here or something."

"Damn, you're bossy. Just…be careful. And the name's Kakashi."

As Sakura stepped through the door of the bar, a swift elbow drove its way into a pressure point in her neck. Her limp body was carried away, and nobody in the bar she'd left behind would know where she was being taken.

---------------------------- - - - - - -----------------------

**A/N:** **Two chapters in one day? Wow…Look, I know that it's tough to write reviews. Just let me know that you read it, please? You can say simply "I hated it." Fine. I need feedback, though, to know how people feel about this story.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Standard Disclaimer:** If you recognize something, I don't own it.

**chapter four//undesired savior**

_As Sakura stepped through the door of the bar, a swift elbow drove its way into a pressure point in her neck. Her limp body was carried away, and nobody in the bar she'd left behind would know where she was being taken._

----------oooOOOooo---------

Kakashi had been watching from his spot near Sakura's now-vacated bar stool. A man had apparently been watching Sakura, and he'd made his move once she (drunk and angry) moved to leave the establishment. Sakura's attacker was only just on this side of male—he had long, dark hair, and he moved with a feline grace.

Kakashi's conscience, which had been determinedly beaten down over the years in order to survive multiple assassination missions, started to show faint signs of life again. Should he go after her? Served her right for leaving a bar drunk. He'd told her that there were men worse than him in the world. With her gone, he reasoned, he could have the bed in the apartment all to himself. And he would never have to wait for the bathroom as Sakura did the typical female things in there. But again, without a roommate he would have nobody to talk to. He wasn't about to go schizophrenic just to carry on a conversation. Maybe he'd get a dog…

Finally making up his mind, Kakashi decided to go after Sakura's assaulter. After all, he did need to find out how much she'd seen of him when they'd been in the apartment. Well, not how much of his body, anyway, but rather the incident with his favorite senbon holster. Good thing she didn't seem to have seen the multiple holsters lying in his bags. An astute civilian was never such a good thing on a mission.

Leaving a pile of yen on the counter for his (and Sakura's) drinks, Kakashi made his way out the door. He put his hands in his pockets, something he had often seen non-agents doing, and took a look around. Apparently the attacker wasn't very quick, or Sakura wasn't very light, because he was only just a few hundred feet from the door.

Hiding in the shadows as any good agent could do, Kakashi silently came up behind the man with the silent grace he was known for. Pulling a senbon out of his holster, he calculated the point most likely to cause dehabilitating pain.

Just as he was about to attack, however, the man in front of him stopped and turned his head towards Kakashi's place in the shadows.

"Good evening, Kakashi. Mission going well?"

Of course, this left Kakashi stunned. Just as he was about to reply, the man spoke again.

"So because you haven't been around HQ so much, you're too good to say hello to another Sharingan?"

Fellow Sharingan or not, Kakashi needed to talk to this man, away from the other people who roamed the streets. He pulled him into a nearby alley, catching a glimpse of the other man's face in a nearby beam of light.

"Sai?"

Sai nodded and chuckled.

"Damn…this one's kinda ugly…and heavy to boot."

"Am…not…" Sai had been remiss in his attack, as Sakura was already starting to recover from it. Kakashi threw Sai a quizzical look, then nodded briefly as Sai went to knock her out again. They didn't need someone listening in.

"Damn…she came out of that? I must not have hit hard enough…that only took five minutes…"

"Why are you taking her, anyway? She's just a civilian."

"Oh? And how would you know?"

"She's my roommate while I'm here in town."

"Have you done her yet?"

"What? I only just met her yesterday."

"So that's a 'no'?"

"Why do you even care about my sex life, Sai?"

Sai gave a perverted grin. "No reason. But anyway, I'm taking her as part of a mission."

Normally, Kakashi would have left the conversation at that. Missions were not normally discussed with anybody not taking an active part in them. But he had just witnessed his civilian roommate attacked in a public area. Even as part of a mission, that was just bad form.

"If you needed her so badly, why did you do it in the bar?"

"Well, she was leaving, and I received a tip that she's an ANBU agent. Better safe than sorry, no?"

Kakashi was stunned by this information. He ran through his list of observations of Sakura, but none of them seemed to shout "ANBU AGENT HERE".

"Sorry, Sai, but you're wrong on this one. She can't possibly be an agent. I've watched her for about a day and nothing supports your theory. After all, she let her emotions get the best of her—a true agent would never do that."

"Eh? Fine, you can take her then. But…what do you say we have a little fun, first?"

"I'm not going to rape her, if that's what you mean."

"No, but you're going to need a story. Like, how Kakashi got Ugly Girl back from the Big Bad Thug."

"You're too feminine to be a thug. Five minutes, you said, 'til she gets up out of her stupor?"

"Yeah."

"Why don't we fight then? I need a story to cover up the reason why I had a senbon holster on me earlier. Then maybe I can convince her that I'm a…personal bodyguard. Or martial arts expert. Black-belt in karate and tae-kwon-do or something."

"Whatever. She's waking up again. Let's go."

---------oooOOOooo-----------

Sakura woke up in a dark and smelly alley to the distinct sounds of fighting. When she'd left the bar, she'd been so riled up that she hadn't heard her attacker coming. One hit to a pressure point and she was out like a clichéd light.

However, Sakura was an ANBU. And pressure point attacks were basically trained out of all orphans once they became genin. An average of four and a half minutes were needed to work oneself out of a daze. It took more when the agent was drunk, so her slowest wakeup was five or so minutes long.

She opened her eyes, rubbing her head as the vision of two men—was that black-haired one a guy?—fighting. She groaned when she saw that Kakashi was fighting.

Which one had attacked her? She hadn't seen a face. She wouldn't have put anything past Kakashi, since he'd obviously viewed her as a sexual object before. However, she'd heard the other man call her ugly from the general region of her hips. She'd been slung over someone's shoulder, so it made sense if that other man were the one who had hit her.

She was about to say something, but the sheer beauty of a physical fight stunned her. Faint lights from either side of the alley shone in distinct circles upon the ground. The two men went in and out of focus as they worked themselves in and out of the beams.

Kakashi executed a perfect high-kick, which was sloppily blocked by the other man. The man stumbled back, but returned with several punching combinations. The fight went on and on, until Sakura could no longer keep track of all the martial arts moves. Finally, the black-haired man was on the ground again, and Kakashi pulled out a shiny senbon from the holster she'd seen him putting on earlier.

'_Why on earth would he have such a thing?'_ Sakura thought as the fallen brunette opened his eyes wide in fear. Kakashi smirked, and threw the senbon—lightly, but with perfect accuracy—into a pressure point on the man's neck. The brunette was knocked out. Kakashi looked a bit perturbed at winning, as if he were worried about the thug.

Finally, he turned to her.

"I told you so."

"None of this would have happened if you had just left me alone in the first place, you know."

"Oh really? So you would rather have been attacked in a bar _without_ someone to protect you?"

Sakura wasn't about to tell this near-stranger that she had no less than three holsters of weapons on her body tonight. She was supposed to be a civilian, and she'd played along.

"Thanks, I guess." She turned to go back to the apartment. True to form, Kakashi caught up and caught her shoulder. She huffed, then turned to face him.

"What now, oh Great Warrior?"

"I'll walk you back."

This caught Sakura off guard. She didn't deny that it would help to have someone watching her back, especially if said someone were highly trained in all martial arts styles. However, said someone was also a royal pain-in-the-ass.

"Whatever."

Sakura started walking away. She heard Kakashi start jogging to catch up, but he kept a respectful distance between the two of them. She didn't realize it, but she let out a small sigh of relief. She didn't want to risk another attack—it was a sad day when a top jounin could be knocked unconscious by a common thug without first putting up a fight.

-------oooOOOooo--------

Back at the apartment, Sakura waited until Kakashi was out of the bedroom as she closed the door and started changing for sleep. She didn't want to keep the holsters on because they made it awfully uncomfortable. However, she couldn't risk leaving them out where he could possibly find them. So, she left them on. They were slim holsters anyway. She could wear most clothing with the smallest worry of betraying outlines.

She got into the bed, pulling the covers over herself. She noticed that they had shuriken printed on them. It was a bit weird, sleeping under what looked like kid's sheets.

Sakura heard the door open, and sat up as Kakashi flicked on the light. He wasn't wearing the holsters she'd seen before. In fact, he wasn't wearing anything but a pair of low-slung long pants. He was in good shape, too—well-defined pectorals, subtly ridged abdominals…

All godly looks aside, he was in her room.

"What are you doing here?"

Kakashi plumped up a pillow on the other side of the queen-sized bed.

"Getting ready to sleep, of course."

"But you're supposed to sleep on the couch. This is…is…impolite."

"No, my dear, you dictated that I was to sleep on the couch. You, however, are sleeping on _my_ sheets."

Oh. Apartments didn't provide linens…and she hadn't brought her own. She had just figured that the sheets were left by a previous tenant.

Sakura started lining up extra pillows down the middle of the bed.

"Your side, my side, don't touch me and good night."

She lay down and turned towards the edge of the bed, shimmying down under the covers. When Kakashi didn't turn off the light, she looked at him. He was still standing on his side of the bed—she sneaked another look at those broad shoulders and sinewy body.

"What now?"

"We need to talk."

"What?" Sakura had never heard of a man initiating a conversation this way.

"Can't it wait until morning? You're not the one who was knocked out today."

"Exactly why we need to talk."

Sakura groaned and stared up at the ceiling. With a great show of effort, she sat up again and leaned against the headboard.

"You _were_ knocked unconscious today. You didn't do anything to stop it."

'_Well,'_ she figured, '_he doesn't need to know that I had a kunai all ready to go when he showed up…'_

Kakashi continued. "That is why I have decided to give you fighting lessons."

"Who are you to offer instruction?"

"I'm a…personal bodyguard. People hire me to protect them."

'_Personal bodyguard? You're the exact opposite of that...you kill, not protect. But I could see rich women hiring you as a personal Chippendale…_'

"I see. And when would these lessons occur?"

"Do you work?"

"No…I'm in-between jobs right now." '_Heh…in between actual missions, more like.'_

"Well then, I'll teach you every day down in the gym. I'm normally working out around four, but we'll have sessions every morning. From nine until whenever I say that you're done."

Nine in the morning was nothing to Sakura. But, true to her cover, she had to pretend not only that she didn't normally wake up at five anyway, but that she couldn't punch a bowl of jello to save her life.

"Fine."

"Good night, Sakura."

Sakura grunted, wormed her way back under the covers again, and closed her eyes. She felt the bed shift a bit as Kakashi, too, tried to sleep.

"Kakashi?"

"Mm?"

"You never turned out the lights."

'_I couldn't even get a 'thanks for saving my life'?'_ Kakashi thought, but he figured that it was best if he just did as he was told for now. After all, she would be getting a Sharingan-style boot camp tomorrow. This would be fun.

ooo

**A/N:**** Another chapter done…thanks for reading, and thanks to waningphoenix and daxxler for reviewing before I wrote this chapter.**

**I have no idea how long this story will end up, but I'm all in favor of a slow buildup to relationships in fanfics. Thus, I'm going to take as long as I need. (I also don't really plan my stories ahead of time, so inconsistencies may—and often do—occur.)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Standard Disclaimer:** If you recognize something, I don't own it.

**chapter five//hitting the gym**

"_Kakashi?"_

"_Mm?"_

"_You never turned out the lights."_

'_I couldn't even get a 'thanks for saving my life'?' Kakashi thought, but he figured that it was best if he just did as he was told for now. After all, she would be getting a Sharingan-style boot camp tomorrow. This would be fun._

-------oooOOOooo--------

Sakura woke up the next morning with the unfamiliar feeling of an additional weight holding down one side of the mattress. She nearly reached into the waistband of her pants (an action which, if seen, could be interpreted awkwardly) to pull out a weapon, but she realized that said lump was Kakashi.

She swiveled her legs off the side of the bed, and began her morning stretches. If Kakashi saw her, she could simply say that she didn't want to pull anything during their boot camp training sessions. Thoroughly warmed up, she rummaged through her clothes until she found appropriate athletic wear. It wouldn't do to wear her more tight-fitting clothes—Kakashi was a pervert, and such clothing would reveal her holsters. However slim her weapon holders were, they could be felt by a hit to the right place. Not that, she reasoned, she would let Kakashi touch those places.

She finally compromised, pulling out a tighter top but fairly loose pants. They might get in the way, but the whole point was to act like an athletic failure. Glancing at the clock, she noticed that it was already 8:30. She must have slept in after the emotional upheaval the previous night. She noticed that Kakashi was still asleep, but she also figured that since he was a guy, he could be ready to go in five minutes flat.

Sakura pocketed her key and took the elevator downstairs to the gym, fixing her longish hair into a high ponytail. Always the perfectionist, she checked for any bumps in the various mirrors around the elevator.

Once in the gym, Sakura looked around. It wasn't the most well-equiped gym she'd ever seen, but then again the ANBU organization prided itself on investing in the latest and best exercise equipment that was available. The walls of the gym were mirrored, allowing not only a patron to admire their newly toned muscles, but allowing an ANBU agent to see the door no matter where she was.

Feeling a bit restless, Sakura went to a treadmill and started jogging at a fairly quick pace. She hadn't gotten a workout yesterday, and she needed to wake her muscles up before Kakashi started his "training". She was surprised when she was able to get a forty minute jog in without him showing up. She went over to the water cooler and filled up a waxy paper cup, still watching the door. Sakura prided herself on her fitness, and she had gotten into the stage of runner's high—all without one glimpse of Kakashi.

It was almost noon by the time Kakashi finally walked into the gym, looking overly eager and cheerful. Did he not know what time it was?

"You're late."

"Am I now? You see, I actually woke up at eight, but then I noticed that there was this kitten on our windowsill. So I went to go get it, and it jumped off! So, being the animal-lover that I am, I risked my life by hanging out the window and jumping out. I saved the kitten, you will be happy to note, and returned it to its waiting mama."

"Cut the crap. For one thing, cats always land on their feet. Two stories is nothing to them. And secondly, I was up at eight and you were still sleeping."

"Tsk, tsk. Such language out of a student. And so untrusting of one's sensei."

"Great, I have to call you Kakashi-sensei and blow a little more hot air into your overfilled head?"

Kakashi smirked, crinkling his eye at her.

"Yup."

Sakura glared at him, wishing briefly that she could see more of his face. He wore a mask that covered the lower half of his face, and he head a strip of cloth tied askew over his apparently missing eye. He seemed to have various masks in his arsenal, as this one seemed to be attached to a tight-fitting shirt whereas the one he wore to bed was not.

'_Why am I thinking about his face? His body is one thing, I'll give him that, but by no stretch of the imagination could his face possibly match. And great, now I'm talking to myself like a hormone-driven civilian. Peachy, just peachy.'_

Kakashi snapped Sakura out of her reverie and pointed at the treadmill Sakura had used hours earlier.

"Ok. Get on. You're going to run until I say that you're finished." He turned the treadmill to a fairly low resistance level, and Sakura almost pressed the buttons to turn it up. She stopped herself just in time though, realizing that she had, as a "civilian" no reason to show off her fitness.

She silently started running at the requisite pace, breathing evenly. She wasn't about to throw her body into a self-induced state of exhaustion. Who said that a civilian couldn't be good with cardio?

Twenty minutes into it, Kakashi turned up the pace on the treadmill. Sakura threw herself into it, still running rather easily. Another five minutes…ten…twenty…forty…Kakashi kept turning up the pace, and Sakura kept proving how well she could handle the workout. Finally, Kakashi turned off the treadmill.

"Okay, onto weights."

'_What? No compliments? No 'that was good'? We'll MAKE him acknowledge our physical prowess…'_ Sakura slapped her forehead.

"What was that for?" Kakashi asked.

"Oh, nothing. Just remembered that I…left something undone." '_Like the screws in my head…now I'm holding conversations with myself? I need to see Shizune back at the compound…'_

"We'll start with bicep curls." Kakashi patted the seat of the machine as if it were a comfortable couch. "Since you're new at this, we'll start off with…oh, say twenty pounds."

'_Twenty pounds? That's what the orphans at ANBU do from day one. Gimme a __real__ weight.'_

Sakura started doing the curls, with Kakashi correcting her form. Once he was satisfied with the number of reps, he moved her through every machine in the gym. Always correcting her form, he secretly was awed by her silent effort. She not only made no complaints, but every time he went to correct her, she made the corrections as if she had been doing them for years.

After weights, Kakashi decided to bypass basic punches and kicks. Instead, he went for yoga and meditation.

"What? I work my ass off for nothing? No kicking, punching?" Sakura whined. She was so angry from the past few days that she really _needed_ to punch something. Nobody in ANBU considered meditation an important thing to do. Of course, people did it on occasions at the local temple, but as part of a workout? Never.

"No kicking. You're not ready for that type of exersion." Sakura almost protested again, but kept her cool this time. She let Kakashi lead her to the mats, assuming a comfortable cross-legged position on the floor.

"Now get comfy. Meditation is very, very important for those of us who study the martial arts. Not only does it relax the body, it centers the mind."

Sakura tried her best not to laugh out loud at this.

"As one meditates, one tries to concentrate all of the loose energies in the body into one place. My sensei used to call these energies 'chakra'. Now, I want you to breathe in and close your eyes, picturing all those balls of energy coming together."

Sakura followed these instructions, letting herself see pink balls from all of her limbs come into one ball near her core. She gathered more and more energy until she felt as if she could shoot a self-created fireball with her bare hands.

"Good. Now exhale and open your eyes."

When Sakura did so, she was surprised to see that her senses were heightened. She could hear every little particle moving through the air around her, she could see with increased detail, she could smell some mix of musk and spice—she gasped when she realized that she smelled Kakashi and let go of her energy ball.

Kakashi chuckled. "Not bad for a first-timer."

"Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked, tilting her head at him. "What's the point of meditation? I mean, after you concentrate all your energy, what do you do with it?"

"Well, let's see. In a fight, if you're properly focused, you can almost see your opponent's next move before he even completes it. With this focus, you can also copy your opponent's moves and use them against him. And such focus adds strength to your attacks—when you're aware of yourself, you can use your body in the most energy-conserving way.

"As for chakra itself, it's present in everyone's bodies. Have you ever heard of so-called mediums who claim to see a person's aura? That aura is really composed of a person's chakra energy. Every chakra level is different, and a higher amount of chakra normally correlates with a higher level of strength and power. Similarly, a higher amount of chakra registers with these mediums as a larger aura.

"Chakra also naturally concentrates itself in certain points. My friend once told me that there are hundreds of these points. Similar to pressure points, by touching one of these points anything from a finger to an entire body can be rendered motionless."

Sakura was stunned. How come ANBU didn't know about this? She would be sure to tell Tsunade when she wrote up her report—agents could become more powerful through a short mediation session. Furthermore, she was learning information about the Sharingan without even needing to kidnap Kakashi. But her mission was still the same: bring him back to headquarters for questioning. When would she do so? And how?

'_He hasn't changed since the day I met him. But could I somehow convince him that I have?'_

New plans and plots came together in Sakura's mental blackboard. Her first curveball had been finding Kakashi so early, her second came when he spilled his agency's secrets to her. Could she possibly keep him talking so long that he worked himself into an ultimatum? Come back with her or die here? Or would he kill her first when he realized that he'd told her way too much? These thoughts kept her busy for quite some time.

"Well, I guess that's it for today, Sakura." Sakura came back to reality once she heard her name. "We'll meet again tomorrow, same time. I suggest that you bring lunch with you, because you're not going to have time to get it."

They both stood up to go. Sakura felt all the blood rushing to her feet and legs again. How long had they been sitting there? She looked at the clock—8 o' clock. Eight hours of training? She hoped that Kakashi hadn't noticed her stamina yet.

Kakashi ushered Sakura out of the gym, pausing slightly as he noticed her figure. '_Funny…when we're training, I just don't see her like that. But now?...'_ Kakashi grinned at his inner perversions, pulled out his long-forgotten _Icha Icha_ and began reading as they made their way back to the apartment.

-----oooOOOooo-------

At the door of the apartment, Kakashi waited as Sakura unlocked the door. He was in the middle of one of his favorite scenes in his favorite volume. Good thing Sakura hadn't noticed that his orange-covered books were a porn series. Or that he had brought about ten of them with him. His friend and fellow agent, Jiraiya, published them through an independent publisher. The only reason that said publisher hadn't given any information about the organization was that his family was under a standing threat of death if he did so.

'_The things we do to get by,_' he chuckled.

Once inside, Sakura ran to claim the shower. She may not have been overworked, but nothing beat the sensation of a warm shower after a long workout. Under the water's stream, she simply stood still and let herself feel. Feel her muscles slowly untensing, her hair getting heavier.

Finally, as the shower was getting slightly colder, Sakura stepped out and toweled off. She blow-dried her hair carefully. Wrapping her towel around her upper body, she walked out of the bathroom and into the bedroom.

Kakashi entered the bathroom when Sakura had left. She had taken such a long time that he was sure she was a complete human raisin now. He turned on the shower, stepped in, and,

"FUCK!"

Sakura ran out from the bedroom, still wrapped in her towel. She had been in the midst of choosing her outfit—she wanted to go out clubbing, let herself go—when she had heard Kakashi swear loudly. She reached the main room, to which both rooms connected, just as Kakashi threw open the door.

Her jaw dropped.

Kakashi, apparently in his rage, had not remember to bring out his towel. Before Sakura stood a dripping wet and naked god. All the muscles she'd glimpsed the night before were amplified by the rivulets of water.

Kakashi hadn't noticed his mistake when he started his rant.

"You are such an idiot! Not only did you take an hour-long shower—and yes, I timed it—you used up every last drop of hot water! I walk into the shower, expecting a nice warm one. But instead, I get frozen within an inch of my life!"

'_But that freezing doesn't seem to affect any…fleshy bits, unless that was originally a bit bigger…wow, that's amazing…_'

Kakashi was done yelling, and noticed that he didn't hold Sakura's attention anymore. Rather, his talking end didn't.

"See anything you like?" he smirked.

Sakura blushed and raised her gaze. She couldn't even think of a good comeback, so she turned and went back into the bedroom. Now she needed to go to the clubs to get alcohol _and _relief from her new-found sexual tension.

She picked out a pair of skinny jeans, and a tastefully slutty top. She fixed her hair with the specially sharpened hair pins—better safe than sorry—and grabbed her favorite heels and purse.

"Where are you going?"

Sakura turned from her spot by the front door. "Out."

"Wait. I'm going with you."

"No, you're not."

"You need protection, remember?"

"Then at least follow at a distance." '_Can't have the guys in the club thinking that we're together. God, he'd scare them all shitless.'_

Though his days were now dedicated to training Sakura, Kakashi still had work to do finding his target. He hadn't gotten any work done the previous night, what with saving Sakura and all. He didn't want to leave her alone, so acting as her escort to the clubs seemed the best thing to do.

As they walked in and out of the elevator, Kakashi realized that the next day was New Year's Eve. He wondered whether Sakura would attempt to find a date for the upcoming fireworks. He rather hoped not. It would mean more work for him if she managed to separate herself from him. He was lazy. He'd figure out the answer to that dilemma after he'd danced with a few cute girls.

------

**A/N: ****Another chapter, already? Well, yes. I go back to school soon, and I'm not sure when I'll update again. I really appreciate those of you who are reading this—the hits just keep coming. (Hehehe…sorta).**

**Happy New Year!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Standard Disclaimer:** If you recognize something, I don't own it.

**chapter six//examining the turf**

"_Where are you going?"_

_Sakura turned from her spot by the front door. "Out."_

"_Wait. I'm going with you."_

"_No, you're not."_

"_You need protection, remember?"_

"_Then at least follow at a distance." 'Can't have the guys in the club thinking that we're together. God, he'd scare them all shitless.'_

_Though his days were now dedicated to training Sakura, Kakashi still had work to do finding his target. He hadn't gotten any work done the previous night, what with saving Sakura and all. He didn't want to leave her alone, so acting as her escort to the clubs seemed the best thing to do. _

_As they walked in and out of the elevator, Kakashi realized that the next day was New Year's Eve. He wondered whether Sakura would attempt to find a date for the upcoming fireworks. He rather hoped not. It would mean more work for him if she managed to separate herself from him. He was lazy. He'd figure out the answer to that dilemma after he'd danced with a few cute girls._

-------oooOOOooo------

Seeing as she didn't plan to stay in Akatsuki very long, Sakura had never bothered to secure transportation for herself. She figured that she would walk everywhere, saving herself both time and money on gas. Apparently Kakashi had thought the same thing, because he'd walked to the city as well.

Thus, the two agents were currently walking the three mile distance to the most "in" club of the moment: _Tyger_.

Once they had finally reached the door, they tried to find it.

Apparently, the owner of this club had thought that it would be even cooler to hide the door to the club. So, not only did prospective clubbers have to get past the bouncers, they needed to do a bit of investigation of their own.

"Well, this is the right area—look at the street numbers," Sakura called back to Kakashi over her shoulder.

"Hn." Kakashi started scanning the area, using his skills to detect the variation in the smooth wall in front of them. He then walked up to the wall, tapping it in places in order to hone in on the exact spot that they were looking for.

Sakura walked over from the place she had been examining, and she went to stand next to Kakashi as he rapped on the hidden panel. The panel slid open. A pair of eyes examined the couple, and then an unseen hand reclosed the panel. Sakura almost pouted and turned to go, but Kakashi grabbed hold of her arm—the door was opening up for them.

Sakura started walking into the club, and realized that Kakashi wasn't following.

'_What's up with him now?'_

Kakashi was examining the entrance, mapping out the surrounding neighborhood. Sakura knew that agents often did that if they were expecting the need for a quick getaway. Who would come after him in a club?

Right. Her.

She idly wondered if he knew that someone was after him. He started walking into the club after a minute or so. He stopped before he got too close to Sakura—good, he would be keeping his distance from her tonight.

Sakura approached the bar, ordering a Bloody Mary for herself. After the bartender handed it to her, she turned around to find a good table—one with a good view of her surroundings. She finally spotted a small two-seater booth near the edge of the room, so she placed her drink down and sat down on the booth. Sakura sipped her drink, gazing around the room at the various people grinding on the dance floor. It looked so nasty to her—she was a virgin, had never really gone clubbing…this wasn't her usual hangout.

Eventually another girl came up to her. When Sakura looked up, she noticed that the girl was around her age, blonde, and smiling. She smiled back at her.

"Would you like to sit down?"

"Sure…I noticed that you were here alone, so I decided to keep you company."

Normally, Sakura would have slapped someone for assuming that she actually enjoyed great amounts of human company, especially that which was forced upon her. But this girl seemed nice enough, so she decided to give her a chance.

"I'm Sakura, and you are?"

"Rumiko. Do you live around here?"

"Actually, I live a few miles from here. I just moved here recently—needed a change of location, you know?"

"Yeah. I grew up in a pretty boring area of the country. When I was old enough, I told my parents that I was leaving. They were actually pretty cool about it—what they had found was the right place for them wouldn't necessarily be the right place for me."

Both girls gazed out at the dance floor. Sakura noticed that Kakashi was dancing with a short brunette. They were very close, and Sakura almost broke her glass for no reason. Instead, she settled on a determinedly red blush of rage.

'_Why? Oh, probably just hormones. You know, he does have a really nice body…_' Sakura drooled at the memory of the shower incident. '_That's it—you're just jealous because that fabulous body is nearly touching another woman._'

"Wow…" Rumiko noticed where Sakura was looking. "That silver-haired guy and that brunette girl are getting pretty cozy if you ask me. Are…you okay, Sakura?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." Sakura waved off Rumiko's puzzled looks. She just needed to calm down, drink her drink, relax and leave Kakashi to his own life. It was none of her business, anyway. She decided that the best way to focus herself would be to meditate. Gathering all of her chakra, Sakura took several deep breathes. When she opened her eyes, Rumiko was looking even more puzzled.

"Was just feeling a bit out of it."

Rumiko nodded, then went back to people-watching. Several other couples were dancing in a manner similar to Kakashi and his brunette—except now he was dancing with a redhead.

"He looks like a player. He just switched girls within the last few seconds."

Rumiko looked at Sakura, and knitted her brows at Sakura's heated blush.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah…just the alcohol making its way through my system tonight."

Sakura got up to get another drink. She offered to do the same for Rumiko, and so she walked to the bar and ordered.

Once there, a presence slid beside her. When Sakura started to take money out to pay for the two drinks, a large and masculine hand stopped her.

"Please, allow me." The man pushed some bills at the bartender and then led Sakura back to her table, his hand on her lower back.

Sakura handed Rumiko her drink, then sat down. The man would have to stay standing—unless he…

The man sat down on the booth next to Sakura, pulling her into his lap as he did so. One hand came to rest on her hip, the other stayed on the table. Risking a glance towards the dance floor again, she noticed that Kakashi had seen everything. She smirked.

'_He's not my boyfriend, or anything. Why should he care?'_

Turning back to the man on whom she sat, Sakura decided to flirt a little. She looked up at the man's face. He was handsome, with dark looks similar to the picture she had seen of Sasuke in the Bingo Book. He had lines running on either side of his nose. They looked unreal, but she couldn't tell for certain unless she ran her finger over them.

"So what's your name, pretty one? I beg your pardon for sweeping you off your feet like this, but I just couldn't resist your charm."

"I'm Sakura."

"Pretty," the man said, stroking her hair. "I'm Itachi."

Itachi? Uh oh…not only was this man's brother Sasuke, but he was a skilled agent himself. Sakura slapped herself for not seeing this before. His picture was in the Bingo Book, for God's sake. Only the most notorious and organizational agents tended to have pictures included in their entry. Tsunade had a picture, for example (though it wasn't the most flattering angle for her).

Anyway, this Itachi figure had started off in the Sharingan agency before murdering its leaders. He took power for a while, but decided to go his own way. He was the one who had left the entire organization to his brother. Itachi, on the other hand, had started a smaller and more exclusive organization: Mangekyou. To join as an agent, one had to prove him- or herself by killing someone close to them.

And Sakura was sitting on the lap of this cold-hearted killer.

----oooOOOooo----

Itachi leaned down to whisper in her ear. "Would you like to dance?"

Sakura shivered involuntarily, drawing in a shaky breath. No matter who this man was outside of this club, he sure knew how to deal with the ladies.

She stood up, and let Itachi guide her to the floor. They started dancing at a steady, pulsing beat. As the songs continued, Itachi allowed himself to touch more of her hip, side, butt. Soon, Sakura decided that she'd danced for long enough. She pulled her new-found date off of the dance floor and back to the table.

Sakura settled on Itachi's lap again. She felt giddy, not used to such close contact with any male. She turned to face him, putting both of her legs over his lap. She glanced up at him, and noticed that he was smiling. Sakura laid her head on his shoulder contentedly, but noticed that they didn't meld together very well. It was like forcing a square peg into the clichéd round hole.

Ignoring those thoughts, Sakura happily nuzzled closer to Itachi. Finally, contact with something living and male after those confusing few days with Kakashi. Speaking of which, he was finished dancing as well and had noticed the new couple cuddling.

Itachi leaned down, kissing Sakura lightly on the lips. She looked up at him, her vision a bit hazy. After a moment, they started kissing.

His lips were soft and insistent. She felt a tongue probing at her lips, but even in her haze she was reluctant to let the kiss go so far, so fast. But after Itachi rubbed her lower back a bit, Sakura felt herself relax enough to let the kiss continue.

Finally breaking away, Itachi nipped at Sakura's ear.

"What do you say we go back to my place?"

Sakura nodded dazedly, but then she realized what that would lead to.

'_Isn't that what you came here for? The release of all your sexual tensions?'_

'_Well, yeah…but not to lose my virginity to another agent.'_

'_Isn't Kakashi an agent? You didn't seem to mind staring at his body earlier today.'_

Sakura hushed her inner voice. As much as she wanted to release some of the knots that had formed in her lower stomach, her rational side told her that this wasn't the way to go. She wasn't some hussy to be gained for a simple one-night-stand.

"Sorry Itachi, but not tonight."

"Oh? I promise you'll enjoy it," he said, standing up and pulling Sakura towards him.

"Really, no thank you. I'm not ready for that."

"You will be when I'm done with you."

Itachi pulled Sakura towards the door, keeping a death grip on her upper arm. Sakura almost cried from the bruising pain.

"Please, let me go!" Sakura looked around for someone who could help her, but Rumiko was still dancing and couldn't take her eyes off of the man she was with.

Sakura tugged at Itachi's fingers as he kept her moving, trying desperately to free herself. She decided to try to throw him, but this was a tricky position from which to maneuver. If she knelt down to attempt the throw, he could easily pick her up and carry her out. And if she successfully downed him, she would be kicked out of the club for brawling.

She decided to play the damsel in distress, and screamed as loud as she could. The thumping beat of the music covered up the majority of her call, but she noticed Kakashi walking quickly towards her. She couldn't remember ever being so happy to see him.

"Sakura, where are you going?" Kakashi asked, taking her other hand.

"Listen, I don't know who you are, but I kindly ask you to lay off of my girl."

"Ah, so the only girls you can get need to be dragged out kicking and screaming?"

"We're just…in a fight. We were going to go discuss our problems outside, but I guess that kicking your ass would be beneficial, too."

Sakura couldn't notice any significant loosening of Itachi's grip, but she remembered that she had meditated before—her chakra couldn't have completely dissipated already, could it?

She tried centering herself again, noticing that it was much easier now that her energy was already part of the way there. After balling up all of them of, Sakura felt more powerful than ever. She pulled back her non-captured arm, and punched Itachi for all she was worth.

Itachi was literally stunned and let go of Sakura. She stormed out of the club, not bothering to look back to see if Kakashi would follow. She was pretty sure that he would, and she was right. Once she was back at their apartment, he followed her inside and shut the door.

-----oooOOOooo-----

"Just what the hell do you think you were doing back there?"

"Enjoying myself, Kakashi-_sensei_."

"So you enjoy being dominated brutally like that? Taken advantage of?"

Even though she could only see his one eye, Sakura was 100 percent positive that Kakashi was livid. His eye was squinting with the rage he was currently expressing, in such an eloquent way.

"Well no, but…"

"There are no buts to this! This is the second time you've been attacked in bars, and this time you were conscious—so you put yourself into that mess with Itachi!"

"So I had a lapse of judgement; I'm human. And how do you know his name?"

Kakashi slapped himself at such a slip of information. He had recognized the brother of his boss immediately, and he'd put himself on a high level of watchfulness when he saw how cozy Itachi had been getting with Sakura. How could he tell her that was really an assassin from a secret organization? Yeah, that would go over _really_ well.

"He's the acquaintance of a friend of mine. Never a nice guy. The type to slip a poison into your drink just after you'd shaken hands."

"Hn." Sakura was slightly impressed at his evasion. It wasn't a great one, but it certainly didn't put him in the light of being a total idiot with words.

Tired with having to protect both Sakura and his identity, Kakashi gave up and fell back into his quieter, more serious self.

"We will train again tomorrow. Same time. Don't be late."

Sakura was about to slip in a remark reminding him that it was, in fact, him who had been late to their first training session. However, she figured that now was not the best time. Especially because she had so much to think about. She wished that Ino were here with her. She always knew what to say in these types of situations.

Because it wasn't the almost-getting-beat-up-in-a-club situations that were getting her riled up. It was having to deal with the most over-bearing, over-protective, hottest and fittest enemy agent (and man) Sakura had ever come across.

Sakura sighed and flopped into bed. She decided that she needed more pillows, so she pulled some from the border between the two sides. Hugging the pillow tightly, she couldn't help her moment of weakness. She started crying gently at the complication of her situation. Not only was she messing up the mission by not capturing Kakashi right away, she was messing up her emotional status by becoming too caught up with the man.

She was falling for the enemy.

She rolled over onto her back and started thinking. True, he was the enemy, but right now they were just two civilians. And she was sure that these stupid feelings would all go away once she had turned him in to headquarters. She had been jealous while he had danced with those other girls, and somewhat glad when he'd come to her rescue. He was still her target though, and she couldn't afford to let herself forget that one simple fact.

Sakura heard Kakashi coming, so she quickly rolled over again and hid her face in the pillows. She knew that he would start asking questions if he saw her tear tracks.

The only thing she could do for herself now was to work towards the end of her mission. It was no good, getting all these emotions in the way. She'd have to push them aside and get down to business.

Anyway, Sakura's emotional side said, he probably doesn't like you back anyway.

With these thoughts still ringing in her ears, Sakura was asleep before Kakashi had even gotten under the covers.

---OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO---

**A/N:**** Thanks so much to my reviewers! Now, I tried to make this chapter longer so that you'd have more to read. What do you think of Itachi and Sakura's feelings for Kakashi? I love Ita/Saku stories too, but now was not the time to make her fall for him. Another fic, maybe.**

**Anyway, I won't update again until I get 5 more reviews. My counter is at 7, so once it hits 12 you guys will get another chapter.**

**Enjoy!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Standard Disclaimer:** If you recognize something, I don't own it.

**chapter seven//closer**

_The only thing she could do for herself now was to work towards the end of her mission. It was no good, getting all these emotions in the way. She'd have to push them aside and get down to business. _

_Anyway, Sakura's emotional side said, he probably doesn't like you back anyway._

_With these thoughts still ringing in her ears, Sakura was asleep before Kakashi had even gotten under the covers._

-----oooOOOooo----

When Sakura woke up the next morning, she looked in the bathroom mirror to find that her eyes were still puffy. She sighed, wishing she knew of some way to kill the inflammation.

She went into the small kitchenette and took an ice cube from the freezer. She wrapped it in a towel, and held it under her eyes as she got ready for her training session with Kakashi.

She knew that he, most likely, would be late to his own practice again. Sakura figured that she could go downstairs and get a real workout in before he decided to bust her ass.

Sakura got dressed, glancing back at the bed with a sleeping Kakashi. He was wearing one of his sleeping masks, and his drooping headband covered one of his eyes. She idly wondered what that one looked like—was it really not there? He looked so…peaceful, sleeping with one arm thrown over onto her side of the bed. Sakura snorted at the cliché. Every sleeping guy in every story seemed to be "peaceful" or "angelic".

Still…Sakura wanted to apologize. She had gotten jealous last night, and then gotten herself in trouble. What was she thinking? That Kakashi would always be there to save her, so she didn't have to bother with the usual protections?

'_Not that you wouldn't mind that._'

Inner Sakura strikes again.

'_You know that you would have loved to be that girl he was dancing with, running has hand down your side lightly, finding its way to your…_'

'You can stop now.'

'_I'm just saying. You know how you were looking at him. And, you know, he _did _come to your aid…there might be something there._'

Sakura stopped. There _could_ be something there—Kakashi had come to her aid twice, and had helped her in the forest. But…he could just be a guy who happened to grope innocent women by the campfire and wanted to do it again.

'_Not that you'd mind it this time._'

The only problem was that she had to capture this man. He most certainly would have suicide pills on his person, ready to swallow at the slightest sign of hostile advances. Maybe she could convince him to defect, come live with her in the ANBU compound? There were some couples down there, not many though, but enough that it wouldn't be completely out of the ordinary.

Did other female agents have this problem? She knew that there had been a girl last year who had been captured by Sharingan agents. That girl had claimed to fall in love with her captor before she had found herself deep into an interrogation drill. The girl had never been the same after she'd been retrieved. She sighed often, eventually committing suicide in a Juliet-like fashion because she couldn't be with "her love."

Sakura had laughed at that story before, but now she was almost starting to live it. Here she was, living with a guy whom she barely knew (but wanted to know better).

She couldn't deny that he was quite handsome, and he was quite good at the martial arts as well. He was the enemy, but…that made him even more desirable. After all, one always wants what you can't have. Maybe they could have a Romeo and Juliet story of their own. She hoped that it would end sans suicide, but nothing in life was ever so decisive.

'_Maybe you should wake him up._'

That was a good idea. Not that was going to jump him or anything (though Inner Sakura sorely wanted to), but then they could talk. And he would be on time to their training session.

'_Talk? About what? Where our non-existent relationship is going? How we are going to live our non-existent love life in this tiny apartment?_'

Sakura sat down on the bed and started thinking. She must have been really depraved, because here she was lusting after the enemy. And she had to capture this enemy. And she had to bring this enemy back to headquarters.

And this enemy most certainly was out to capture someone, too.

Why else would Kakashi be out in the city like this? Similarly, Sakura hadn't been in the city because she was always out on assassin missions. So, Kakashi was probably the same way. Killing people didn't allow for much leisure time, although it paid fairly well.

Could she possibly get him to tell her? Who his target was, anyway. She was sure that he didn't have feelings for her.

Sakura sighed, falling back onto the bed. Why did life have to be so unfair? First she had to take an out-of-the-ordinary mission, and now she was supposed to capture this guy without falling for him? She had certainly failed at that last part. All that was left was to bottle up her emotions and complete the stupid mission.

God was most certainly laughing at her, putting her into this mess that she was currently mired in. First He had gotten her this mission, made her fall for Kakashi, and lastly…He made her fall right on Kakashi's outstretched arm.

As soon as Sakura realized what she was lying on, she tensed up. She didn't notice that Kakashi's other arm was coming over to lie against her hip. So much for the pillow barrier in the middle of the bed. She was currently being cuddled by Kakashi.

Said cuddler made his way closer to her, bringing his body to spoon hers. His arms came together, drawing her back towards his chest. Sakura's head lay on his shoulder. Without thinking, she adjusted her arms into a more comfortable position hugging one of his and went back to sleep.

----------oooOOOooo---------

When Kakashi woke up, he found his arms around something warm. '_Eh? I didn't bring any girls back from the bar last night…'_

He opened his eyes to find that he was cradling Sakura in his arms. This was definitely not how he had gone to sleep. She had been crying into her pillow—probably in an effort to hide this fact from him—and he had simply gone to sleep. Now that she was in his arms, he found himself thinking uncharacteristically.

This was definitely not _Icha Icha_, for one thing. If it were, one of them would have woken up to a more…sexual surprise. She fit quite well in his arms, actually. Kakashi never let women stay very long in his bed. A one-night-stand man let women go after they were satisfied. Kakashi didn't consider himself a cuddler, but he'd never really found anybody to cuddle. Cuddling a one-night-stand just sounded so…wrong.

Kakashi smiled, thinking how innocent Sakura looked. She was a feisty girl when angered, but now she was just…asleep. He felt bad, hiding himself from her. I mean, they obviously weren't best buddies, but roommates deserved to know about each other, right?

And he wanted Sakura to be more than just his "best buddy". Best buddies were like the guy friends you drank with but normally stayed at a respectful distance from. He wanted Sakura to be…his. Damn, that sounded cliché. But it was true. He didn't like seeing her with Itachi last night, and he was almost jealous enough to let Itachi walk out the bar with her to "teach her a lesson". He had saved her—or, rather, watched as she saved herself—just in time.

Speaking of time, Kakashi glanced at the clock, noting that it was currently 9 in the morning. Peeking under the sheets, he noticed that Sakura was already dressed. He didn't want to wake her—this was far too comfortable.

Taking a chance, Kakashi decided to see just how receptive Sakura was early in the morning.

He leaned over her, as she lay facing away from him. Gently, he moved her hair back over her shoulder so that her ear and neck were exposed. Getting close to her ear, he let his breath ghost over the juncture between neck and shoulder as he whispered,

"Sakura…"

Said girl murmured in her sleep, and then nuzzled back into Kakashi's arm and went back to sleep.

'_This one's a deep sleeper, I guess._'

So Kakashi went even further. He gently kissed the juncture, nipping at it lightly and then whispered her name again.

It was hard to say who was shocked more—Sakura when she woke to someone kissing her, or Kakashi when he heard Sakura moan.

---oooOOOooo---

Sakura didn't realize that she had gone back to sleep after getting dressed. Her first clue was that she woke up cuddled into something warm. Then, a voice had whispered her name. She wasn't quite ready to leave her little nest, though, so she simply went back to sleep.

Whoever was in bed with her took it a step further then, and Sakura felt tingly as she was kissed and nipped. She couldn't help her reaction to this—it had never really been done to her before, so she moaned.

And woke up to a startled Kakashi leaning over her not-so-sleeping form.

"What the—" she pointed at him angrily. "You're such a _pervert_!"

Kakashi didn't deny this, but he wasn't about to say so out loud. He merely sat up and looked at her. She sat on her knees, screaming in distress.

"How could you take advantage of someone like that? Don't you know about someone's personal bubble? Why aren't you saying anything?"

"I'm not the one who cuddled into my roommates arms last night."

"I did no such thing!"

Oops. Sakura faintly remembering doing such a thing. She looked down, and noticed that she was fully dressed. She hadn't been dreaming that she had already woken up once before, noticing that…

"Oh my…it's already 10! You…you…you made me late to your own training session!"

"Did I now? It looks like you were all ready to go down."

"That's none of your business."

Kakashi laughed. Sakura was just so cute when she was angry. He wondered whether she would look so positively ravish-able when he wasn't being yelled at.

He chose to smile at her—not that she could tell except by the one eye which was crinkled up happily.

"What are you smiling at, Kakashi-_sensei_! You're a horrible person, you know that? How could you take advantage of…of…your STUDENT?"

Kakashi simply smiled more, holding up his hands in self-defense. Coming to a decision, he stood up, picked Sakura up off of the bed, threw her over his shoulder, and put her down on the couch in the main room.

"What are you doing?" she screeched, hitting his back from her position before she found herself on the couch.

Kakashi sat down next to her, waiting until she calmed a bit. She wasn't completely happy at the moment, although her fuming had petered off into a low mutter.

"Well, Sakura-chan…" Sakura fumed a bit louder, "we need to talk about us."

Sakura stopped, and stared at him. Could he possibly be initiating something between them? Could there be an "us"?

"'Us' Kakashi-sensei?"

"I just realized that I don't know anything about you. Your favorite color, food, etc. And, since we're living together, I figured that it was only fair that we talked about ourselves for a bit."

Needless to say, Sakura was disappointed. He hadn't meant an "us" us, but more a friendly "us". She pouted at her topless roommate. Of course, he _was_ topless, and ogling his chest muscles made things a little bit better.

"What do you want to know? Are we going to play 20 Questions or something?"

"More like…Hot Seat. Whatever question the other person asks has to be answered. But, if its really embarrassing they can make the questioner answer as well."

"Ah."

"And after that we need to talk."

"This won't be talking?"

"No, it'll be a sensei to student talk. About last night. With Itachi. You really ought to protect yourself, you know."

"I would know how to protect myself if you hadn't let me sleep in past our training session."

"You're a big girl. You should know how to wake up on your own."

"Fine. What's your favorite color?"

"Huh?"

"We're playing Hot Seat first, remember?"

"Red. Food?"

"Umeboshi. Why do you wear that mask?"

Kakashi fingered his mask a bit. "To keep up a mysterious personality for the ladies."

Sakura stared at him. "Seriously?"

"Yes, now I get two questions. Let's see…"

"Wait, what?"

"Three. How old are you?"

"Twenty-one."

"Where do you live?"

"I'm a roamer…I don't really live anywhere for very long."

"Why are you here in Akatsuki?"

Sakura paused. She really couldn't remember if she had lied about this before, so she had to think of a new one.

"I'm looking for someone."

"Who?"

"Not fair, it's my turn to ask the questions around here. Why are _you_ in Akatsuki?"

"I'm looking for someone."

"Who?"

"No, it's my turn. Who are you looking for?"

"Umm…err…I don't like this game any more, sensei."

"Fine. Answer the question and we'll stop."

"Only if you answer the question."

Kakashi nodded.

"I'm looking for…for…"

Fortunately, Sakura's cell phone rang. She reached to pick it up, looking at Kakashi questioningly. He nodded, and she walked back into the bedroom and shut the door to take the call.

"Hey Sakura, it's Ino. I have great news!"

"Huh? What are you talking about, Ino?"

"I'm getting married to this guy named Shikamaru! It's next summer, please say you'll come!"

"Of course, but…who's Shikamaru?"

"Some guy I met at a bar. He's so sweet, and quiet, and tall, and handsome and…"

"I get it. But…where are you going after you marry? You can't very well stay, you know."

"Details, details. I'm leaving ANBU though."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah…I think I'm going to start up a flower shop in the city. 'Yamanaka's Flowers' or something like that."

"So this Shikamaru doesn't know that you're…"

"No. Though I don't know what he does for a living, either. He's really smart and…"

Sakura stopped Ino before she could think of any more adjectives to describe her new fiancé.

"So, how's everything going?"

"I found him."

"And…when are you two coming back?"

"Stop making it sound like he's my new boyfriend or something. We're living together, though."

"Is he any good in bed?"

"INO!"

"Just asking. Well, is he?"

"I don't know."

"Tell me when you find out, okay?"

"What makes you think that I'll end up in bed with him?" '_Not that we don't technically sleep together as it is…_'

"I have my ways. Anyway, come home soon, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. Bye, Ino."

"Bye."

-----oooOOO------

Kakashi had very good hearing. Even when Sakura was in the bedroom making her call and he was on the couch, he heard every word she said.

Some things disturbed him, though. She knew someone named Ino? There couldn't be that many female Ino's in the world, could there? And…she had mentioned Shikamaru. The only Shikamaru who Kakashi knew was in Sharingan. And she was looking for someone. A guy. Who she was living with. Him.

Kakashi could put two and two together, and they added up to something very wrong. It could all have been coincidence, he guessed, but the kicker was the fact that she had been looking for _him_. (The part about ending up in bed with him made him chuckle, though. He was planning on changing that.)

Who was Sakura, really? She couldn't possibly be ANBU, since she couldn't fight. And she also had no idea about how to mask a telephone call so that nobody else could hear it. And she was so extraordinary in her hair color that there was no way in which she couldn't be in the Bingo Book. Those kind of physical traits just happened to stick in someone's mind.

He looked up when Sakura opened the door and walked out. She sat on the couch next to him and sighed, leaning her head back.

"What's wrong?"

"Wrong? Oh…nothing."

"'Nothing' doesn't sigh as if her kitten had just died."

"My friend's getting married."

"That's nice."

"To a guy."

"That's to be expected, since I don't think same-sex marriage is legal here."

"Who she met in a bar."

"A lot of people meet people in a bar."

"But they're getting married."

"You're repeating yourself now."

"I know, it's just…" Sakura looked at Kakashi, who was giving her that infuriating eye-crinkle. She wanted to smack it off his face. Could he understand what she was getting at?

"Why her? She's always had boyfriends, and I haven't had one. Not one! I'm twenty-one and I've never even been kissed. And now she's getting married? Is there something so wrong with me that repulses guys? I always thought that she was kind of easy, could that be the key? Sleep my way into marriage?"

Kakashi sat there, taking this all in. No agent would ever lose her control like this. She obviously was either a really good actress, or a really bad agent. Or neither. He couldn't tell.

"There's nothing wrong with you."

Sakura's eyes had started tearing, damn them, when she heard a quiet sentence from Kakashi.

He went on.

"You're hair is pretty, you're pretty, your eyes are beautiful and sparkle or shoot lasers depending on your mood, you're feisty, and you shouldn't worry about your friend. Worry about yourself and your own happiness instead."

"But…"

Kakashi was tired of this little game. He _had_ heard her moan when he'd kissed her, she had climbed willingly into his arms, and she was looking extremely cute when she was pissed off. He'd seen her eyeing him after he'd emerged, dripping and naked, from the shower. He had to know whether there could ever be something there, anything at all. If there wasn't, he would find somewhere else to live. And if there were…

So Kakashi leaned forward, cupped her cheek gently, and kissed her from behind his cloth-covered mouth.

He sat back, and waited.

---------------

**A/N****: Another chapter! This whole "5 reviews or else" thing is probably hurting me more than it hurts you. I will settle for the three I got already.**

**But…I want another 3 before I update again, you hear?**

**Happy reading.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Standard Disclaimer:** If you recognize something, I don't own it.

**chapter eight//confusion**

_Kakashi was tired of this little game. He had heard her moan when he'd kissed her, she had climbed willingly into his arms, and she was looking extremely cute when she was pissed off. He'd seen her eyeing him after he'd emerged, dripping and naked, from the shower. He had to know whether there could ever be something there, anything at all. If there wasn't, he would find somewhere else to live. And if there were…_

_So Kakashi leaned forward, cupped her cheek gently, and kissed her from behind his cloth-covered mouth._

_He sat back, and waited._

------oooOOOooo--------

Sakura sat stone-faced for a minute, though Inner Sakura was getting her cardio in by running around frantically. Apparently, Inner Sakura went into vocabulary-deficit mode when emotions ran high. The only three words currently being spoken, in rapid succession and ad infinitum, were "oh" "my" and "God".

He had kissed her. Oh my God, she had been kissed. '_He kissed me_' Sakura thought to herself. Inner Sakura wasn't the only one at a loss for words.

With this realization firmly in place, Sakura blushed. Her face turned darker than her hair—a healthy shade of Embarassment Pink. She glanced at Kakashi, who seemed to be laughing to himself at her reaction. She wasn't that readable, was she?

Biting her lip, Sakura looked down at her hands. She pretended to be extremely intrigued by the bones and muscles working beneath the skin as she twiddled her fingers.

Taking a deep breath, Sakura took the plunge. She stopped staring at her fingers, looked up at Kakashi, moved so close to him that they were quite comfortable, pulled down his mask, and kissed him.

It was now Kakashi's turn to be surprised. That passed quicker than Sakura's, however, so he began contributing to this new-found hobby.

They played it safe for a while—neither wanted to push the other one too far at this point, though it was hard to claim that excuse when each had instigated a different kiss.

Sakura took this close-mouthed kiss as a new exercise or lesson—she had never, or if not never then very rarely, been kissed. Kissing one's hand was nothing like having a pair of lips moving against yours. Your hand couldn't really vary the speed of the kiss, or put its arms around you, or nibble on your lip. No, it really wasn't the same at all.

Kakashi was amazed at Sakura's reaction, never expecting her to do something so bold. She was feisty, sure, but she wasn't completely stupid. (Stupid, in this case, meaning kissing someone she'd known all of a week without the cover of alcohol.)

Whatever Kakashi thought, he was sure enjoying this kiss.

And, by the small moves she made—inching even closer, holding Kakashi's face gently in her hands—Sakura was, too.

True to form, however, a knock came at the door just as Sakura was building up the courage to open her lips a bit.

Sighing, the two disentangled themselves. Sakura went to the door, opening it to see the face of the woman from the office. The woman smirked, seeing how the two roommates attempted to look presentable.

"Package."

"Couldn't you have left it in the mail room?" Sakura asked, eyeing the brown-paper wrapping. She noticed that the tape holding the paper closed had been carefully lifted, then replaced.

"Too big." The woman spied Kakashi, stared at his face and froze.

Sakura looked behind her to see what the big deal was. When she'd gone in to kiss him, she'd pulled down his mask but hadn't seen his face. She was too focused on finding his lips. The office woman, however, certainly noticed. Kakashi made eye contact, then pulled up his mask.

"Good bye." Sakura took the package, closed the door and turned around.

"Caught en flagrante delicto."

"But we weren't having sex."

"We could be."

Sakura walked back over to the couch, and slapped Kakashi's bare upper arm.

"Way to ruin a moment. Is that all you ever think about?"

"You know what they say about guys. We only have enough blood to function with one head at a time." He paused for dramatic effect. Sakura's look went from confusion, to realization, to indignation. She hit him again, harder this time.

Kakashi pulled Sakura down onto his lap and held her there.

"I'm not sure that I got a good enough sample."

"Sample?"

"It takes approximately ten minutes of solid kissing to determine whether two people are compatible. That's scientific fact."

"Pig."

"I'm a guy, I already went over this."

"Shut up. I need to deal with this large package."

"But I'm behind you."

"Pig."

Kakashi laughed, but released Sakura to go retrieve a pair of scissors. She came back to the couch, but sat next to him instead of on top.

Tearing open the paper, Sakura used the scissors to cut the packing tape. She opened the cardboard box, and lifted out a note and an item wrapped with tissue paper.

_Dear Sakura, _the note read, _I forgot to tell you this on the phone, but I'd like you to be a bridesmaid at my wedding. Please say you'll do it? Since you're not at home, I sent the dress to you. I got the measurements from some of the clothes you left here. The wedding is going to be in the city on July 5th—no use having it here, Shikamaru doesn't know where HQ is. _

_The wedding is going to be at the Midori Hotel. You'll have a room there, so you can help me get ready. The reservation is from July 4__th__ to the 6__th__. It's a double-occupancy room, too—maybe you can bring your new roommate, so as not to let the opportunity slide. _'Typical,' Sakura thought, Ino's never been one for subtlety.

_I'll call you soon, and don't get pregnant too soon._

_Ino _

--------oooOOOooo---------

The dress was beautiful. Ino had always worn rather revealing clothing, and she pushed for Sakura to do the same. However, it seemed like Ino was now gaining in maturity and conservativeness. Of black silk, the dress was a maxi length with spaghetti straps. There was black beading and silver embroidery, and the hem was tastefully asymmetrical.

Sakura held up the dress, and Kakashi look lazily at it.

"What's that for?"

"Remember that friend who's getting married? I'm going to be one of her bridesmaids."

"Hn. When is it?"

"July 5th."

Kakashi looked at her and read the note, then looked at the dress.

"I'm going with you."

Sakura stood up, letting the dress fall to the floor.

"And the wedding is next week."

"What? You can't just invite yourself to a wedding that you haven't even been invited to! That's just…impolite and wrong!"

"Are you saying that you're going to travel alone, then?"

"Well…"

"Exactly. Now, how many people does your room at the hotel hold again?"

"It's a double…" Sakura grumbled, wishing that she'd never let go of the note.

Kakashi looked satisfied. "I like this Ino already. After all, we don't want to let this…opportunity go to waste."

"You said that the wedding is next week. That can't be, it's not summer yet!"

Kakashi pointed to the day's newspaper.

"June…but Ino said the wedding was this summer? It sounded like she meant next summer."

"Obviously she felt like it was far away. Or she's been living underground for so long that she doesn't know what the date is." 

Sakura wasn't about to tell him that, in fact, ANBU headquarters _were_ underground. She also wasn't going to let him slide with that comment about Ino which could also be construed as one against herself. She hit him again, picked up the dress, and walked into the bedroom.

It had been a little less than a week in the apartment, and Kakashi had his first lead on Ino. He wasn't sure whether or not this Ino was the right Ino, but it couldn't hurt to find out. He didn't want to tell Sakura why he was so glad to go to a wedding—besides the fact that he could spend time with her—because he was afraid to let out too much information to a civilian.

Shikamaru, though, would be a different story. Kakashi was sure that there was only one in the country, and that one was a Sharingan agent. Shikamaru was one of the top strategists, preferring planning missions to actually executing them. Besides himself, Shikamaru was the laziest agent.

'_But at least I complete missions instead of playing board games and staring at clouds._'

Deciding to get to the bottom of this, Kakashi pulled out his phone and called his fellow agent. After a few rings, a bored voice yawned, "Moshi moshi?"

"Yo."

"Kakashi?"

"Yeah. Are you getting married to a girl named Ino next week?"

Silence.

"How did you know?"

"My roommate is one of her friends. She's going to be one of the bridesmaids."

"Only bridesmaid, actually. Ino doesn't seem to have a lot of friends. Troublesome, the wedding is already small enough as it is because of me."

"I see. I'm coming."

"Eh?"

"With Sakura, I'm coming with her."

"Oh. Will you be my best man?"

"Yes, but there's something you need to know about Ino. I'm not so sure about her—what's her background? Where's she from? And is she an ANBU agent?"

"Why would she be? That'd be so troublesome…"

Kakashi pulled out the Bingo Book and flipped to Ino's page.

"Is she blonde?"

"Yes."

"Roughly twenty-one years of age?"

"Yes."

"Good reflexes?"

"I guess so. But that doesn't prove anything."

"And they call you the master planner…just watch your back, ok? Don't spill anything about the agency."

"I know. I'm leaving after we marry, though. I'm going to go through debriefing with Sasuke, then move into someplace in Akatsuki."

------oooOOOooo-------

Sakura came out of the bedroom, and saw Kakashi on the phone. She went into the kitchenette, made a snack, and sat down next to him, cross-legged.

"Who are you talking to?"

Kakashi held his hand over the phone, and said that it was a friend of his.

"Listen, I've got to go. See you soon."

"Ja ne."

Flipping the phone closed, Kakashi turned to Sakura.

"My friend's name is Shikamaru. He's…"

"Getting married to Ino?"

Kakashi eye-crinkled. "Small world, neh Sakura-chan?"

"Guess you can be my date to the wedding after all."

"Who says I want to be, now?"

Sakura pouted. "Fine, I'll just ask…Itachi."

Kakashi sobered and demandedly stated, "No. You will not see that man again. He has no respect for women, and you are too special to be treated like shit."

"You're doing it again! I'm not some little kid who needs protection from bullies all the time! I can fend for myself."

"I'm doing this because I care, believe it or not! You can fend for yourself? Then why have you been attacked twice in the past few days?"

Sakura sighed, holding her hand to her head. She put her snack down on the table.

"Why do we always end up fighting?"

"Because we're not afraid to say anything."

'_Except the fact that I'm a secret agent with orders to capture your friend Ino._'

"Yeah, you're right I guess. Anything."

'_Except for the fact that I'm a secret agent with orders to capture you._'

Sakura sat on Kakashi's lap, and he wrapped his arms around her. He pressed his mask-covered lips to the top of her head, which fit neatly in the crook of his neck.

As they say, there is a time for everything. This was not the time to be talking about themselves. That would come later. Now, it was time for a peaceful silence.

------oooOOOooo-----

When Kakashi woke up, he had a crick in his neck and a weight on his lap. Said weight shifted towards his chest. Amused, he smiled, and gently shifted her so that he could get some food. He hadn't eaten all day.

Grabbing some food from the rather empty fridge, he heard a moan from the coach. Nothing sexual, mind you, but more a…breathy whine of a moan. Yup, nothing sexually arousing at all about that.

But this was Kakashi. He read porn daily. Hourly, even. And if he heard a female moan, there was no other way he would construe it. Moment-ruining be damned.

-----oooOOOooo----

Sakura lifted her head and sat up slowly. Rubbing her forehead, she started thinking. _'Was that all a dream?'_ She hadn't slept that well in a long time. She heard the fridge open and she let out a moan. '_Maybe it was a dream…because if this were still a dream, I'd wake up on Prince Charming's chest. And this couch isn't a good substitute._'

She heard a low chuckle from the kitchenette.

"How do you feel?"

"Disappointed."

Kakashi walked back to the couch, food in hand. "Why?"

"Nothing. It's really nothing."

"Ok."

Sakura hit him. He really didn't get it, did he? If he were a dream guy, he would have read her emotions like a fairly easy book. He would have moved closer, and asked her to tell him what was bothering her. But no. Kakashi simply didn't care. In fact, maybe she _would_ take Itachi up on his offer of fun elsewhere.

Kakashi noticed how quickly Sakura shut up, and he got the vaguest hunch that something was wrong. Maybe she'd seen a bug. Was she afraid of bugs? He didn't know.

Sakura sighed and fell back onto the couch, hitting her head on the corner of the armrest.

"Great. Just peachy."

Kakashi moved closer to her, putting her arm around her and rubbing her head a bit. He didn't say anything, just sat there.

"Sakura?"

Would he ask how she was? Would he make her feel better, not that rubbing her head wasn't good enough but it really wasn't and now she was rambling.

"Yeah?"

"Are you afraid of bugs?"

"Erm…no. Not really."

"Ok."

Sakura got up, and grabbed her keys. "I'm going to work out." She walked out the door. So, she'd found the most un-sensitive guy ever. He followed her out to the gym, though, but he still didn't bother to ask how she felt.

She pouted as she went through the various machines. Treadmill, bicep curls, upright row…She focused all her attention onto executing the exercises with the utmost concentration and anger.

"If you keep doing that, you're going to hurt something."

Sakura let go of the handles of the last machine she'd used, letting the weights drop with a clank. She stood up, and turned to face Kakashi.

"Thanks."

"Is something bothering you?"

"_Now_ you ask? You kiss me, and then leave me on the couch? Do I mean nothing to you?"

"Of course you mean something. I was hungry."

"I'm less important than your stomach?"

"Sakura, you're blowing this out of proportion…"

"OUT OF PROPORTION? You took my first kiss, and then dump me, and expect me not to take this badly? Well listen here, Kakashi, because I will not let this simply pass! In fact, maybe I should change the locks. Or move out. I'll go back to living with Ino. It sure beats living with an insensitive jerk!"

Kakashi put his hands up in self-defense, half-expecting her to start lashing out with her fists. He was right about that, because she shortly started hitting him. Hard.

"Ow…ow! Sakura, stop that!" He grabbed for her fists, holding them tightly. Sakura's eyes were tearing up, and her lower lip was trembling. She looked more like a grumpy child than anything else at the moment.

Kakashi threw Sakura over his shoulder after a moment of thought, and walked her back to the room. She continued hitting him now that her hands were free again, and Kakashi endured the jabs until he threw her down on the bed. He pinned her down by sitting on her.

"Get off of me!"

"Nope. You're acting like a spoiled brat, Sakura. Now, we can talk like two sane adults or we can go our separate ways on bad terms. Your choice."

Sakura pouted. Someday, she would get him back for this.

"Fine, fine, we'll talk."

"And you won't resort to violence?"

"Yeah, yeah." She had a slim senbon holster at her hip if she should need it.

Slowly, Kakashi got off of her and moved to sit cross-legged. Sakura set up, and sat facing him. Talking never seemed to get them anywhere. They would end up fighting. She knew it. It was just a matter of time now.

"What?"

"I'm hurt, Sakura. You call me insensitive, a jerk. And I resent that. Now, what are your issues with me?"

"My issues? You kissed me and then dumped me! Do I need to say it again?"

"Ah. Might I remind you that you kissed me back?" Kakashi eye-crinkled above that stupid mask of his. Sakura wanted to rip that mask off of his obviously-smirking face.

"I give up." Sakura got up. "I'm going to go stay with Ino until the wedding. See you then."

With that, Sakura gathered up some of her stuff. She opened her cell phone, about to call Ino and tell her the news, when a strong pair of arms encircled her. She felt herself get turned around, and she looked up at Kakashi's face.

He loosened his hold a little, but only enough to pull down his mask and kiss her chastely.

"Bye."

Sakura raised her hand to push him away, and she walked out the door, touching her lips. Damn him. Now her thoughts were all jumbled again. She risked one glance backwards as she walked out the door, noticing Kakashi's face for the first time.

His silver hair flopped a bit over his forehead, and one eye was still covered by that droopy headband of his. Normally, guys tended to look metrosexual if they tried to pull something like that, but it really did work for him. His one uncovered eye was dark, and fairly unreadable. His face was long and narrow, and his lips were masculine yet soft.

Damn him again. Now his face would haunt her, and every time she thought of those masks she would have the urge to pull it down and see his face again.

She quickly turned to go, and made it all the way down to the lobby before she realized what she was doing. Leaving Kakashi behind. The man she…lusted. It couldn't be love, they'd only known each other for a week. She would leave behind all of their problems, including their histories and backgrounds.

And the mission? That was effectively ruined, now. Maybe she'd just tell Tsunade to send another agent. But…there weren't that many. And it would be hard to get Kakashi where they wanted him. That was just another problem to be dealt with. Sakura didn't want to deal with anything to do with that infuriating man right now.

Sakura ran towards Konoha Forest, back to her home of so many years. She was leaving one set of opportunities for the familiar one's at ANBU Headquarters. At least there, she knew what she was doing. She was in control.

And that's what mattered.

----------------------------------

**A/N:** **Thanks for all the reviews! I'm sorry it took so long to update, I've been busy dealing with final exams.**

**What do think? Are Sakura and Kakashi OOC? I don't really plan these chapters, I just sit down and write.**

**3 Reviews til an update.**

**Tata**


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